Paul Goldberger, advisor for the Obama Presidential Center, says Obamas prefer "modern and refined" over a "traditional" building

MCP: How would you characterize the President and First Lady’s architectural taste, as best as you can tell up to this point?

PG: Modern and refined. They like modern things quite genuinely. They do not want a traditional building... there’s a certain kind of, let’s say tailored modernism, that they respond best to. But they’re interested in a range of things, and they’re also very interested, as they should be, in somebody who they will feel comfortable talking to.
— commonedge.org

Paul Goldberger was first offered to advise the Obama Foundation in the selection of the Presidential Center's architect by Penny Pritzker, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, who also happens to be the niece of Jay Pritzker – founder of the Pritzker Prize in 1979.

Get caught up on the selection process for the architect of Obama's Presidential Library:

The word "quality" means nothing on its own. Its like saying that a building should have "character." Everything has quality and character.

Villa Savoye is hip and "tweetable"... is railing against "cool" bringing us any closer to "quality" or is it all beside the point? Maybe we should be talking about the nature of media and architecture in a serious and critical way instead of dismissing everything that engages media/fashion/marketing. We just go in circles with the BIG-hating.

Olaf, I am in the field and I see differences and similarities between Allied Works and BIG. I was asking the question (in the other thread) in order to understand where the usual anti-BIG folks like you and Nate are coming from. Its obvious that you struggle when it comes to expressing your thoughts on architecture. I was giving you an opportunity to draw a comparison. Instead, you attack me, because thats how terrible communicators roll.

But his Kenwood house was a pretty ordinary neo-georgian looking thing. I don't think it's necessarily a fair statement of his taste though - for most people architecture isn't the top priority. He might have bought it for the size, the neighborhood, the view (there's a neat byzantine synagogue across the street). Or maybe Michelle just liked it. It's typical for the neighborhood, and buying existing is a lot less trouble than building new, especially for someone with better things to do.

Feb 15, 16 10:21 am

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